If you have a business you MUST have an info-product. I don’t care what type of business you are in. An information product will increase your bottom line if used correctly as a tool for your business, hands down.
From using them as BAIT (lead in) products to generate leads for your business, to making a fortune from the proceeds of the actual product, there are multitudes of ways to use this valuable tool to grow your business.
What is an information product?
When people talk of an info-product they generally refer to an ebook or a special report with valuable information on a specific subject. However, home study courses, DVDs, CDs, audio tapes etc are also info products. In other words, an info product is the medium being used to deliver the valuable information to a prospect.
Since information can be easily transferred in digital format using the internet, digital info products such as ebooks, downloadable reports, software, videos etc became very popular with the growth of the internet
No matter what business you are currently in or even thinking about starting, your prospect will look up to you as an expert and a source of valuable information on the specific solution you provide to your target market.
Whether you teach people a foreign language or how to cut their monthly bills, or even if you repair roofs or sell cars for a living, you have information that can be extremely valuable to your prospect.
You should make this information available to these people that need it and you should use it as a tool for your marketing.
There are 2 main ways people make money with info-products.
- Proceeds from the direct sales of the actual product (ebook, software, DVD etc)
- Using the product as a bait to generate leads that would later be converted to customers
If you teach people a foreign language, you can record your classes on DVDs, include some printed material and sell it as a package to people that want to learn the specific language. A 10 DVD home study course would typically sell between $250 and $2500 depending on the market and the value of the outcome it helps people achieve.
But that was a very straight forward example.
How about something a little bit less obvious?
Let’s say that you are in the roof repair business.
How on earth can you use information products in your market?
You are not in the business of selling ebooks or DVDs. Far from it.
You are a person that climbs up ladders every day, driving heavy duty trucks, getting dirty trying to make ends meet. The last thing in your mind is making a few bucks selling ebooks when each job you get makes you $10K.
Wrong!
Let me explain.
You can create a booklet outlining the major causes or roof problems.
Give hints and tips on how to extend the life of their roof.
Give specific advice on how to choose the right contractor for their job.
How to negotiate with contractors and save.
How to make their roof look better without redoing it
Educate them on different roof issues and the various ways of fixing them
How to ___ (fill in the blank).
Of course make sure to have your phone numbers and other contact information throughout the booklet so these people can call you up.
Put a price on your booklet, say $15, but give it away in exchange for the prospect’s information such as email address or phone number etc.
Even though you didn’t make money directly from selling the booklet, you got the prospects information who you can then call and offer a free roof evaluation. If for every 100 booklets you give away you get 1-2 more jobs (on the low side), that’s another 20K in your pocket you didn’t have before.
This example can be adapted to work with almost any business. Instead of a printed booklet you can give away a digital version of it. Or you can create a video and put it on DVD.
Be creative.
Here are my 7 tips on how to create your own information products quickly for less than $100.
- Search online for PLR products (PLR stands for Private Label Rights). Most PLR products allow you to modify the product as you see fit, even put your name as the author. Usually you get the complete ebook in an editable document that you can open on your computer and modify as needed
You can also combine multiple PLR products to create your very own unique work. Most come with sales pages, graphics and other tools you need to start selling them right away. These products normally sell between $7-$47
- Borrow a digital recorder or plug a microphone into your computer and record yourself talking about the subject. Make 5-7 bullet points on paper and start elaborating on those points while recording yourself. Record about 45min to 1 hour of audio. That’s enough to create an audio CD.
Even if you hate the way you sound on audio, do it anyways. You can also hire a transcriptionist for $30 to transcribe the whole thing for you. About an hour of audio can become a 20 page document. (1.5 spaced)
- Ask someone to interview you on the subject. Prepare the questions in advance and give them to the interviewer. Then each of you can call into a conference line that lets you record the conversation. Keep the interview between 45 and 60 minutes. (theBasementVentures.com offers free conferencing)
- Have someone take a video camera and shoot video clips of you performing certain tasks. This works exceptionally well for “how to” type projects. Then have the videos turned into a DVD. You can even do this yourself with home video type software.
- You can also record the screen of your computer doing certain tasks. For example you want to show someone how to create an email address. You can record your self while doing that with a “screen capture” software and have that video turned into a product.
- You can even get paid to create an info product. Say you want to build a product on “How to cut your bills by 50%”. You can host a tele-seminar where you will talk about the subject and charge a fee for people to participate. Lets say you will charge $47 per person. If you get 10 people to pay you, that’s $470. Make sure to record the teleseminar and spend a portion of the $470 to transcribe and edit it. You just got paid to create yourself an ebook.
Tips: allow people to ask questions. Their questions may represent concerns you have not thought of but your target market needs answered.
- Outsource. With online freelance services on the rise, outsourcing has never been easier. My favorite services are: guru.com, elance.com and rentacoder.com. You can hire people from all over the world to work on your project for a fraction of what you may have in mind. Freelancers compete for your project which drives prices down.
It is so easy and affordable to create an information product that you have no excuse not to use this powerful marketing tool in your business.
Even if you don’t have a business, starting a business selling information products is an excellent idea. I have personally sold thousands upon thousands of information products on the internet the past couple of years and made more money than I would ever make at the best full time J.O.B.
This stuff works!
Partner to Your Success,
-Socrates Socratous - www.SocratesBlog.com
About the author.
Socrates Socratous is a world renowned internet marketing expert. He runs several successful online businesses and trains motivated individuals on how to start and grow their own profitable business by using the power of the internet. Make sure to visit his blog and signup for his powerful newsletter at: www.SocratesBlog.com
Tags: ebooks, InfoProducts, private label rights